US middle age concept traced to Civil War origins

In this book cover image released by Scribner, "In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age," by Patricia Cohen, is shown. (AP Photo/Scribner)

JERRY HARKAVY

Most Americans tend to define middle age as the period between 40 and 60, give or take a few years. They may be surprised to learn the concept of middle age only took root at the end of the Civil War.

Middle age, it turns out, is not a fundamental law of nature, according to author Patricia Cohen, but rather a man-made invention viewed in years past as a time of decline and senescence but now equated with wealth, power and influence.

Or, as the author puts it: “Middle age is a kind of never-never land, a place that you never want to enter or never want to leave.”

“In Our Prime” is a fascinating study of this complex stage of life, a book whose appeal is likely to extend beyond the middle-age demographic to readers approaching or looking back on that key stage of life.

Drawing from leading thinkers in fields such as biology, psychology, economics and sociology, Cohen traces the evolution of the idea of middle age over the past 150 years. Whereas Sigmund Freud believed one’s personality was shaped by age 5, Erik Erikson diverged from his former mentor and came to see middle age as a meaningful period of development.

None of the conflicting theories about middle age had been subject to rigorous scientific scrutiny until 1999, when the MacArthur Foundation released the results of a nearly $10-million, 10-year study that debunked many myths about the stage of life. Another major study now under way is tracking the effects of aging on the brain. As part of her research, the author takes on the role of guinea pig in that study and undergoes a brain scan to record her emotional responses to various images.

The groundbreaking MacArthur study challenged many myths, most notably that of the so-called midlife crisis. Even so, Cohen noted, “this allegedly omnipresent affliction has remained a touchstone, a powerful presence in our imaginations if not our lives.”

Meanwhile, the baby boomer generation’s penchant for self-help and rampant consumption has given rise to what the author characterizes as the Midlife Industrial Complex, a network that pushes products and procedures to remedy the purported afflictions linked with middle age.

The advertising industry and magazine publishers helped to promote an obsession with youth in which gray hair was seen as a social stigma rather than natural aging.

That mindset, however, may be on the wane. Cohen notes that advertisers and TV programmers are paying more attention to those in the 55-to-64 age bracket. So, too, perhaps, has the reality of middle age as a period of opportunity for change.

“Middle age can bring undiscovered passions, profound satisfactions, and newfound creativity. It is a time of extravagant possibilities,” Cohen said.

Review

“In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age” by Patricia Cohen is available now from Scribner. Standard retail price: $25.